what Frank is listening to #215 – THE DIAMONDS – Songs from the Old West – (Mercury) – 1960
The Diamonds are a 1950s era, clean, white, vocal group from Canada.
Yes I know that doesn't sound good does it … especially that Canadian bit.
Lovers of 50s music will know them for their big hits which were largely white cover versions of black songs. Most discussion of them seems to end there, which is a pity as some of their songs are great. OK, so the music is no longer R&B or doo wop but as far as trad pop goes a lot of it is more than listenable.
allmusic, succinctly, possibly too succinctly, defines trad pop as: Traditional Pop refers to post-big band and pre-rock & roll pop music. Traditional pop drew from a repertoire of songs written by professional songwriters and were performed by a vocalist that was supported by either an orchestra or a small combo. In traditional pop, the song is the key — although the singer is the focal point, this style of singing doesn't rely on vocal improvisations like jazz singing does. Traditional pop can also refer to the orchestra leaders and arrangers that provided the instrumental settings for vocalists.
Of course rock audiences know The Diamonds hits "Little Darlin" and "The Stroll" but generally their songs come from that grey area of rock where trad pop was trying to keep up with the times and took on rock stylings. This was taken to the n'th degree with white clean pop covers of contemporaneous black songs. This was not Elvis, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis or Bill Haley who also covered black artists. Those artists drew inspiration from the black artists and the covers were not dissimilar to what they were doing anyway whereas a lot of the trad pop covers were record companies, producers and arrangers clinically sitting down and creating a softer, whiter version of a black song with a white vocal group that was along for the ride.
Accordingly most of the trad pop covers are accompanied by orchestras, strings, and sound like, well ….. up tempo trad pop.
But, that does not mean the music is irrelevant. If you were to exclude white poppier acts from rocks oeuvre you wouldn't be left with much, even the Beatles, arguably in their early days, would have been thrown out.
How is this, you ask?
There were many crossover trad pop / pop rock vocal group acts that did well: The Diamonds, The Four Aces, The Four Freshmen, The Lettermen, The Four Preps, The Fleetwoods.
Many of them were the link between trad pop and the harmony-based rock & roll bands of the 1960s. The sound eventually became quite influential, most obviously on Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys though The Beatles also took a lot from the vocal groups.
The orchestra laden sound also wormed it's way into the mainstream rock artist repertoire and most of the late 50s early 60s acts recorded with orchestras or strings, qv: Tommy Sands, Jack Scott, The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Gene Vincent, Ricky Nelson. The peak being Bobby Darin who actually crossed over the other way and went from rock to becoming a Sinatra style trad vocalist.
Only Elvis remained immune to orchestra and strings – probably because he was in the army during the time of that sounds peak. He would instead adopt that in the 70s for Vegas. With regards to trad pop vocals Elvis had been moving in that direction, early on, by having his backing vocalists, The Jordanaires, singing harmony, sometimes close harmony with him though quite clearly he was always the lead vocalist. Quite distinctly, he had been experimenting with (or rather inventing) a different type of music animal altogether … the rock ballad.
I should say that it wasn't all one way traffic as trad pop vocalists also adopted some rock pop stylings and had hits, qv: Roy Hamilton, Billy Eckstein, Brook Benton, Guy Mitchell and others. Interestingly, the first three mentioned were black.
I did say it was a grey area.
In a lot of ways the market was more interesting in those days as there were a lot of different musical styles competing for chart position and accordingly a lot of seepage between them. This musical meting pot started to decline by the early 60s as rock became formalised and dominant. It still existed though until the mid to late 70s. It has been dead in the mainstream since the 80s.
This album by The Diamonds comes late in their career – there is only one original Diamond left, lead vocalist Dave Somerville. The group by now is half Canadian and half American but based in the US. The group remained fairly consistent, musically, though. The trouble is they had been overshadowed. The mid 50s Diamonds may have been a white vocal group emulating black doo wop but by the early 60s that had become, more or less, the dominant pop rock sound and accordingly The Diamonds had been marginalised. This album (their last) has them tackling another genre with their usual trademark sound, country.
OK, they are actually tackling Hollywood country and cowboy ballads which had been the "pop" side of country throughout the 50s and had been quite commercially popular. It is not a radical attempt at something new. In fact it seems natural that they would attempt an album of the same.
But, I have always been a sucker for Hollywood cowboy songs.
allmusic has as good a definition as you could wish for: Cowboy Music was originally handed down from the genuine Old West articles, its repertoire consisting of songs sung on the open range to pass the time on cattle drives. This tradition continued to inform country & western music long after its attendant lifestyle had all but disappeared, since romanticized cowboy mythology still held a fascination for many. That fascination resulted in the production of innumerable Western and cowboy films, and with those films came a revival of interest in cowboy music. Actually, it wasn't so much a revival as a hunger for more mythology — singer/actors like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry relied far more on new compositions which evoked similar themes of cowboy life. The performances and production of cowboy songs depend largely on the context — while movie songs were usually recorded with modern soundtrack-style orchestras, old-time groups like the Sons of the Pioneers relied on traditional, unadorned acoustic instruments.
The most interesting thing is that The Diamonds do inject a little, very little, white doo wop into the proceedings. The recordings are not "authentic" enough to be played in Nashville but are good enough for Hollywood westerns and they are pop enough to appeal to mainstream audiences.
The orchestra is conducted by Italian-American Peter Rugolo who was one of the most interesting of the 40s-60s Hollywood composers having served his apprenticeship under the great Stan Kenton before going on to work with many jazz vocalists. I suspect he produced the sessions and did most of the arrangements. The Diamonds had worked with him before (he was Recording Director at Mercury records) on "The Diamonds Meet Pete Rugolo" from 1958.
Tracks (best in italics)
- Cool Water – Bob Nolan – the old Sons of the Pioneers standard …. done well.
- San Antonio Rose – Bob Wills – The song has been done by dozens of cowboy singers but it's possibly a bit to country for The Diamonds.
- Beautiful Brown Eyes – arr by The Diamonds – fairly undistinguished.
- High Noon – Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington – from the good but overrated 1952 film "High Noon" – this is Tex Ritter's theme song to the film and probably the most well known western film song. The Diamonds version is not as desperate or down beat as the original but a good version nevertheless (has there ever been a bad version of this song?).
- Wagon Wheels – Billy Hill, Paeter DeRose – the big Broadway like crescendos suit the Diamonds. I love songs with clip clops in them anyway.
- There's a Goldmine in the Sky – Charles & Nick Kenny – nice but not distinctive.
- My Little Buckaroo – M.K. Jerome, Jack Scholl – slight.
- Cattle Call- Tex Owens – suitably cowboy like with a gentle faux yodel.
- Empty Saddles – Billy Hill & J. Keirn Brennan – mournful but …..
- Streets of Laredo – arr by Pete Rugolo – one of my favourite cowboy songs.
- The Trail of the Lonesome Pine – B. MacDonald, H. Carroll – filler.
- Home on The Range – arr by The Diamonds – good version of the standard.
And…
I like cowboys songs …. I'm keeping this.
Chart Action
US
Singles
Album
Singles
Album
England
Singles
Singles
Album
nothing anywhere
Sounds
Cool Water
attached
attached
Streets of Laredo
attached
Others
covers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNUlhLfAl3c&feature=fvwrel (taking the piss but affectionately)
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(originally posted: 26/06/2011)
